• No. 27 in yards per run by the opposition (4.5) and tied for 22nd in takeaways (21).

Also not ideal: Opponents scored on 41.9% of their possessions. The Browns scored on 29.8% of their drives.

Entering the season, Pro Football Focus says the Browns’ front seven is the worst in the league, and their secondary — a top-five unit in 2014 — is 25th.

The counter argument to all of this is that the replacements couldn’t be much worse, and if the Browns are going to be terrible, they should at least let all of the young guys play.

We agree with that assessment wholeheartedly.

Our only problem with some of the moves is the Browns let a couple good, young players — right tackle Mitchell Schwartz (age 27) and Gipson (26), a safety who has 13 picks the last three years — walk, while saying winning is still the priority and saving a monstrous amount of cap space.

What they are doing, though, is racking up a ton of draft picks and conserving as much cap space as possible — both of which are great for future years, but don’t help them at all in 2016.

You can do that and still try to win now.

But it seems way more likely that the future will look much brighter when the 2017 draft kicks off than it does when the 2016 season comes to an ugly conclusion.

Rounds played rise again in July

Golf Datatech continues to show encouraging numbers for courses in the Cleveland area.

The company, which has been tracking the industry since 1995, said 2,980 golf courses contributed to its report for July. In the East North Central Region, which includes Ohio, the number of rounds played year-over-year dropped 2.7% last month. For the year, rounds in the region are down 1.3%.

In Cleveland, though, rounds were up 1.5% in July, and for the year, the increase is 12.3%. Columbus has the same year-over-year increase, and in July, rounds in the capital city rose 3.5% year-over-year.

Nationally, rounds dropped slightly, 0.6%, in July, according to Golf Datatech. For the year, rounds are up 2%.

You can follow me on Twitter for sports information and analysis, and you should follow Spotrac if you have any interest in the NFL salary cap. (One plus: It is easier to understand than the NBA’s.)

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